Meeting among DNR, county and CAFOs questioned

A meeting that included representatives of 14 CAFOs, the DNR, EPA and lobbying group Dairy Business Association was held without notice March 31 at Pagel’s Ponderosa.(Photo: Karen Ebert Yancey/Kewaunee County Star-News)

Lee Luft, Kewaunee County Board supervisor and chairman of the Groundwater Task Force, expressed concerns at the task force’s May meeting about a March 31 non-public meeting titled “Kewaunee County Groundwater Meeting” that included Russ Rasmussen, DNR Water Division Administrator, other DNR officials, a representative of the Dairy Business Association (DBA) and representatives of 14 of the 15 CAFOs in Kewaunee County at Pagel’s Ponderosa farm in Kewaunee County.

Luft said he meet with Rasmussen on April 16 to ask him to clarify why a meeting regarding what most County Board members believe is the county’s No. 1 issue would be held without public notice and why the meeting did not include members of the Kewaunee County Land and Water Conservation Department.

Lee noted that the only County Board members present at the meeting were County Board Chairman Ron Heuer and Supervisor John Pagel, chairman of the County Land and Water Conservation Committee, who owns a CAFO. Tom Davenport of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was also at the meeting, according to minutes of the meeting secured by Luft.

“There was no acknowledgment that the meeting took place by the parties that were there,” said Luft He said that he learned of the meeting from another DNR representative.

Luft said that he was uneasy that a member of the Kewaunee County Land and Water Conservation Department or other member of the Land and Water Conservation committee (some who are farmers or who rent to farmers) were not invited while a major farm lobbying group, the DBA, was present.

Although Pagel chaired the Land and Water Conservation Committee meeting on April 14, he did not report to the committee that the March 31 meeting had taken place. Heuer also did not report on the meeting to the County Board at its April 21 meeting.

“The DNR asked us not to publish it,” said Pagel this week. “They wanted to meet with the farmers from the county first.”

A prepared statement issued today by the DNR said that “a meeting held in late March with some representatives from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and regional government officials was an informal gathering designed to collect additional information. DNR also intends to meet with other stakeholders to gather additional viewpoints and information in the weeks and months ahead.”

“The fact that a representative from the DBA was invited to the meeting and our county conservationist was not is significant,” Luft said.

County Conservationist Davina Bonness said she received no notice of the March 31 meeting. She said that on April 30, she received an email from the DNR inviting her to a meeting for stakeholders in the Kewaunee County Groundwater issue on May 26, but has received no agenda or location for the meeting.

Six environmental groups petitioned the EPA in 2014 to use its emergency powers under the Safe Drinking Water Act to address alleged nitrate and bacteria groundwater contamination in Kewaunee County by investigating 15 CAFOs that were spreading cow manure on county fields and allegedly causing groundwater contamination in Kewaunee County. Since then, EPA officials have been working with the DNR and county officials to help address groundwater concerns.

While Luft reported that Rasmussen wants all the groups involved to work with the EPA on the groundwater issues, Heuer said at the task force meeting that “EPA wants the DNR to handle the issues.”

“Our point with the DNR is that we need to treat these regions with Karst bedrock differently,” said Luft. “We need separate or different regulations.”

Well tests completed in 2014 throughout the county showed that approximately one-third of the tested wells were contaminated, primarily due to the spreading of cow manure in county fields located on Karst bedrock, where the depth of soil to bedrock was less than 20 feet and allowed contaminants from the manure to seep into groundwater.

Since then county officials have been seeking solutions to the problem. In an April 7 countywide referendum, more than 80 percent of voters approved an ordinance to limit the spreading of manure on these farm fields between January 1 and April 15 when runoff from the fields was most likely to contaminate wells.

But county officials have also expressed frustration that the DNR is not enforcing existing regulations of CAFOS meant to prevent groundwater contamination.

“We don’t have a DNR warden hired for the county yet,” said Dick Swanson, task force member, noting that the position had been open for more than a year. Bonness said that the DNR did not have enough trained wardens to fill all its statewide openings and that DNR officials from Door and Brown counties have been assigned to Kewaunee.

Luft said that he told Rasmussen that in the past the DNR had assured residents in Northeast Wisconsin that strict regulation of large dairy farms, through permitting and Nutrient Management Plans would prevent ground and surface water contamination.

“The reality is that these regulations, while well-intentioned, have failed to prevent contamination of our beaches, the bay of Green Bay and our groundwater supplies,” Luft said.